Which to use
“shown” and “sown” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #1,354
- “shown” frequency rank
- #30,976
- “sown” frequency rank
- 32330
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | shown | sown |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | past participle of show | past participle of sow |
Where the eye mixes shown and sown
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. shown runs 5 letters (CCVCC) against sown's 4 (CVCC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Look-alike desk: shown vs sown
A purely visual mix-up. shown (/ʃəʊn/) and sown (/soʊn/) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 32330, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
shown is recorded at frequency rank #1,354, classified as averb, pronounced /ʃəʊn/. sown is at rank #30,976, tagged as averb, pronounced /soʊn/.
Glosses for this pair are partially populated in our dataset, but the full side-by-side definitions above should still guide you to the right choice.
With a confusion score of 32330, this pair ranks #338,688 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of shown vs sown
Shared letters: nosw. Private to "shown": h. Private to "sown": -.
"shown" · 5 letters · shape CCVCC · "sown" · 4 letters · shape CVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "shown" and "sown" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary English text, does "shown" or "sown" show up more?
What to do next
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "shown" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "sown" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #338,688 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "shown" and "sown" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "soca vs sown". Nearby pair
- Recorded mistypes exist for at least one side of this pair, useful when a spell-checker or OCR lands on the wrong form. See mistypes
Confusion rank #338,688 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.